Apple Click-Through

[!CAUTION] This script is WIP. There may be unforeseen issues.

This script enables click through on macOS, allowing you to click UI elements inside inactive windows without clicking the window first.

[!NOTE] Tested and working on MacOS 27 & 28. Prior versions may be compatible.

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Setup

Can be done without cloning repo if desired.

1. brew install hammerspoon
   • If you are not using Homebrew, simply install Hammerspoon from their website.
2. Launch hammerspoon.
3. Configure hammerspoon such that it has sufficient rights.
4. Click on the hammer icon in the top-right menu bar and select Open Config.
   • This config is located at /Users/$USER/.hammerspoon/init.lua for me.
5. Run ./install.sh from the repository root to install the module files into ~/.hammerspoon/clickthrough and patch your existing ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua safely.
6. Click on the hammer icon again and press Reload Config.
7. tail -f ~/Library/Logs/apple-click-through/main.log
   • This prints click event logs to verify the solution and debug unexpected behavior.

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Update

Repeat step 4 from above.

Pull the latest changes from this repository and run ./install.sh --force to refresh the module files and reapply the loader line in your ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua.

[!TIP] The above requires quite some manual work, it is easier to clone the repository. For updates, you can then just run git pull && ./install.sh --force to get latest changes. Feel free to automate this one-liner every month or so for automatic latest greatest.

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To Note

• I hope to someday bundle this into a simple install script if it proves stable over time.

• If you encounter any issues or have improvements in mind, please let me know via the issues tab! Include a relevant log snippet (see step 6 above for info).

• For any applications that misbehave with this script, you can exclude them by tweaking the config.

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History

The original GitHub Gist for this idea, can be found here, which was sparked by this discussion here.

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Mirror

We have a mirror on gidot, an open-source alternative to GitHub: https://gitdot.io/dainank/apple-click-through

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Special Thanks

... to all the people submitting issues and testing this script!

• @ojde
• @autoclave73